Starbleached by Chelsea Gaither Page A

choice. Because he was there. He was
right there in front of her, and she wasn’t going to fail again. “Bryan,” she
said, her voice a little harder. Her own slender fingers found the buttons on
her shirt. “What…do you need to…” swallow. It felt like all the pressure in the
world was caught behind her throat. She could barely find the buttons, she was
shaking so hard “…to feed?”
    “No.” The wild panic in his eyes matched hers. “I will take
care of my…needs tomorrow.”
    “I don’t think you have tomorrow. Hell, if you were anyone
else I’d have you on a bed next to Galina. Strapped down, if I had to.”
    “For what?” laughter, and then another low hiss of pain.
    “Malnutrition. You’re skin and bones. Also, you have a
bleeding hole in your gut that may have punctured a lung.”
    “My biology—”
    “Is obviously susceptible to shock. You’re pegging off every
warning signal I have.” Her voice quavered, but the hands removing her blouse
were steady. “And I’m not going to watch you die if there’s something I can do
about it.”
    “Why?” his eyes searched her face. “You’re terrified of
this. It isn’t necessary.”
    “Because I lost you once already. Twice while I’m watching
is too much to take.”
    His entire attitude shifted. He hissed again, low and long.
Probably what an Overseer did when it was told something it did not want to
hear. She reached to examine the wound, and he caught both her wrists,
preventing her from touching him properly. She felt the mouths on his hands
grip her skin eagerly, the light prickle of hungry nematocyst teeth.
    “It’s completely voluntary.” He whispered. “I won’t if I
don’t want to. And I will not. Ever. Not to you.” He let her go.
    She picked up a vial of enzyme and an applicator. The needle
slid into her skin, and the chemical burn was like a bee sting. “Why not me, if
you don’t remember?”
     “Your face is my first memory. You are in every shadow.
What little I remember of…before…is you. And my universe is…brighter…when you
are here.”
    “Bryan—”
    “It feels good, do you understand? To be full of…life. Not
wanting. Not hungry. It’s unforgivable. Especially with you.”
    He was getting scary again. She needed to do this and get it
over with. “I don’t want to lose you again.”
    “You never found me.” He whispered.
    She picked up his hand, swallowed, and pressed his grip
against her chest. The organ on his palm was hot, intense.
    “I will.” It was an oath. “I will find you. I do whatever it
takes. I owe you.” She whispered. Alien eyes focused on hers, heavy with pain.
“And I love you.” Tears flowed down her cheeks. “Please.”
    He straightened, moving so that her back was supported by
the low bench, his weight heavy against her body. The nematocysts prickled
against her skin. “It will hurt. You cannot imagine how much it will hurt.”
    “Just do it and get it over with.” She whispered.
    He closed his eyes, turning his terrible face away. And she
discovered something she hadn’t known before. Overseers wept. She touched the
tears, the strange, soft skin on his cheeks glossy. It was like touching the
chrome sides of a long lost room, if that metal were made alive. Before she
could check the impulse, she leaned forward, heart pounding, pressing his awful
hand deeper into her chest, and kissed him on the cheek.
    He made a low keening sound, something no human could make,
something that would break any heart in two.
    And then it felt as if her chest exploded.
     
    *****
     
    Then:
    Laughter and light spilled around them, the soft thickness
of the grass cradled them, and Adrienne smiled. Okay, so the light was canned,
the grass was the perfect, genetically engineered stuff that never needed
cutting, and there were no clouds or blue sky (or real sun) over their head.
Still, one of Bryan’s picnics was worth it. How he always found the one abandoned
place on the concourse…
    “One